Greek Revival Landscaping

Whether you have a historic home built in the eighteen forties or a newer home built in the Greek Revival style, then you may want to consider designing your gardens using Greek Revival landscaping ideas. In fact, Greek Revival landscaping has such a clean, elegant look that it goes well with almost any style of home.

The most important thing to remember as you begin your Greek Revival landscaping plan is that everything in your yard should be symmetrical. This means that if you could literally fold your gardens in half, the two halves would match. If you plant a bush under a window on one side of your home, be sure to plant a bush of the same species under the window on the other side.

Your Greek Revival landscaping design should include plenty of evergreen bushes in simple geometric shapes. Good choices would be

Other plants that look wonderful with this type of design are liriope, topiary bushes of any type, and bedding plants, such as begonias.

Any Greek Revival landscaping plan should include paths. Often, these gardens are set up so that there are actually four paths. The paths intersect to form a cross shape. At this intersection of the paths, there is usually a focal point, such as a statue, a column, or an urn.

Fountains and sun dials are also quite popular. If you are not fond of statuary, you could also chose to plant a small tree in the center of your garden. Although it may not be the traditional choice, a weeping Japanese maple makes a beautiful focal point. For someone who wants to make a more authentic choice, a fruit tree would be ideal.

Finally, if you like the look of a fully landscaped foundation, you may not want to design an authentic Greek Revival landscaping plan for your home. In the early eighteen hundreds, people believed that heavily planting the gardens near the foundation of a home could cause illness. Instead, they left the foundation area virtually bare and concentrated on planting graceful formal gardens in the yard.